Nazism and apartheid

Abstract:

Shortly after the Nazis assumed power in 1933, the German Protestant Church split into two opposing factions. The Deutsche Christen supported the Nazi policies regarding Jews and sought to establish a German Volk Church with a theology justifying racial separation. This theology was rejected by a group calling itself Pfarrernotbund (later known as the Confessing Church). Although the Confessing Church opposed the Deutsche Christen specifically on theological and ecclesiastical grounds, they have been identified by many as having opposed Nazism in general

Since 1965 in South Africa, there has been a call for a Confessing Church based on the belief that such a Church will help bring apartheid to an end. The purpose of this study is to determine whether a Confessing Church can fulfill this function

The extermination of the Jews was a last step in a long process which started with the enactment of anti-Jewish legislation and was followed by the expulsion of Jews from their homes and places of origin to distant ghettos and concentration camps. Although the anti-Jewish laws numbered almost four hundred, they were in effect extensions of two fundamental pieces of legislation, namely, the law prohibiting marriages between Germans and Jews and the law denying the Jews their German citizenship. Both laws were based on the conviction that Germans were a nation of pure blood, and that this special status was ordained by God. The Jews, therefore, became the pariah of German society

These Nazi ideas found strong support among the Afrikaner Nationalists, especially from 1926 to 1943. When their party assumed power in 1948, they embarked on a program of discriminatory legislation against Blacks which had two purposes. It was designed to transform South Africa into a country for Whites only, and to ensure that the Whites would remain a nation of pure blood - since this is the will of God. More than three thousand pieces of legislation have been passed by Afrikaner Nationalists against the Blacks, but two laws form the basis for all this legislation. These are the laws prohibiting marriages between Blacks and Whites and the law denying Blacks their South African citizenship

In South Africa, the White Protestant Churches are divided into two main groups, namely, the Dutch Reformed Church, which supports apartheid, and the English-speaking Churches, which claim to be opposed to apartheid

There are numerous similarities between the laws passed by the Nazis against the Jews and the laws passed by the Afrikaner Nationalists against the Blacks. There are also similarities between the role of the Deutsche Christen and the Dutch Reformed Church, on the one hand, and that of the Confessing Church and the English - speaking Churches on the other

The Afrikaner Nationalists have not yet formally embarked on a policy of exterminating Blacks. The White Churches in South Africa wield enormous power and have considerable influence on the Government, therefore they have a vital role to play in the solution of apartheid. If this can throw some light on the role of the Confessing Church in Nazi Germany and what lesson that can teach the Churches in apartheid South Africa, it will have served a useful purpose